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walmart is a completely shit company to have around. It would be far better for society to have UBI than to prop up Walmart. Walmart can’t even pay most of the employees a living wage or any kind of insurance while simultaneously pocketing billions and billions in “profit” annually.

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Walmart is the largest grocery store in the country. Just giving out UBI and collapsing Walmart, without some sort of replacement would make things even worse for people living on the edge of food deserts.

Why do you think no one would buy their stores and continue the same business but with living wages and such?

You have a point here, however:

Step 1: Use scale-derived lower WACC and an army of lawyers as cudgels to destroy independent retail and grocery in exurban and rural communities.

Step 2: "You can't get rid of us because without any other retail or grocery there'll be a food desert here!"

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